Monday 31st January 1916

Front line trenches east of Bois Grenier.

The day dawned dull, misty and quiet and remained so all day. In the late afternoon preparations began for the relief of the Battalion, and of the Royal Scots. Baggage and company stores were carried out via Shaftesbury Avenue and company cooks were despatched to new billets in the western fringes of Bois Grenier. Later that evening, having been relieved by 8th Yorkshires, the Royal Scots marched back, via La Rolanderie, to rendezvous with the rest of their Battalion while most of 10DWR made their way to their new billets. By now, however, the village of Bois Grenier, as described by J.B. Priestley, was in ruins,

“a village which must, in the far-off happy days of peace, have been the home of a prosperous and happy little community. Now – alas – the civil population have long since gone and the village is a ruin. Some of the houses are almost intact, while others – the majority – are battered indescribably. The beautiful old church in the centre of the village is a ruin, roofless, with only about a quarter of its steeple left”.

All images by kind permission of Jerry Rendell. They all originate from Capt. H.L. Oakley of 8th Yorkshires; see Jerry's excellent book, Profiles of the First World War

One platoon of ‘B’ Company, along with two machine guns and their crews did not go into billets but were stationed instead at Cemetery Post, just south of the village in the Bois Grenier Line. Priestley described the “Edgar Allan Poe setting” in which he and his fellow ‘B’ Company men now found themselves:

“a line of reserve trenches runs right through the cemetery, and our platoon is occupying these trenches. The French graves have all large stone or wooden crosses on them – mostly 8 to 12 feet in height, and we are entirely surrounded by these dismal things. Crowded here and there are between these are little wooden crosses that mark what must be the most pathetic graves in the world – those of British soldiers. On some of them, little French memorials have been placed – how and by whom I do not know. At night, our surroundings look very weird – to put it mildly. But we are veterans now and we take everything as it comes”. Writing years later he also recalled how, “We had great crosses and monuments of marble and granite all round us, unbelievable at night when the darkness was split by the white glare of Very lights and the shadows were gigantically grotesque, though often we had not time to notice them, having to duck down as machine gun bullets ricocheted off the funeral stones”.

Fortunately for Priestley and his pals their stay at Cemetery Post was only brief and next day they, along with the rest of the Battalion, would retire to Brigade Reserve at La Rolanderie.

An instruction was issued from the Adjutant General’s Office in France regarding Pte. Benjamin Wilson (see 20^th December 1915), who was under treatment at Eaton Hall VAD Hospital, Eaton, Cheshire. He had had his left leg amputated having been wounded in November. It was now stated that Pte. Wilson’s wounds were regarded as having been ‘self-inflicted’ and it was now considered ‘necessary to find out whether he will ver be fit to stand trial by District General Court Martial’. In the event, there is no evidence that Pte. Wilson ever appeared before a court martial.

Sgt. Henry Carrodus (see 9^th July 1915) was formally discharged from the Army, with the award of the Silver War Badge, on grounds of ill health contracted in service. He had originally served with 10DWR, going to France with the Battalion in August 1915, but, at date unknown, had transferred to the Northumberland Fusiliers. I am, as yet, unable to make a positive identification of this man.

69^th Brigade War Diary recorded casualties for the Brigade for the month of January:

Killed                                 13; including one officer from 11^th West Yorks.

Accidentally killed             0

Died of wounds                 7; including two officers; one from 11^th West Yorks and one from 9^th Yorks.

Wounded                            98; including three officers; one of whom was 2Lt. Snell (see 30^th January).

Accidentally wounded   4

Missing                                   3; including 2Lt. Glover (see 13^th January).

10DWR’s casualties were recorded as:

Killed                                     1

Accidentally killed               0

Died of wounds                   0

Wounded                            23; including 2Lt. Snell

Accidentally wounded        2

Missing                                   3; including 2Lt. Glover

The official cumulative casualty figures for the Battalion since arriving in France were now:

Killed                                     18

Accidentally killed                4

Died of wounds                     2

Wounded                              93

Accidentally wounded        37

Missing                                    3

The surviving personal effects of the late Pte. John Cardwell (see 27^th January) were returned to his family, via the Infantry Record Office in York.